The tone for 2014 could be set in Las Vegas

Saturday

Mar 8, 2014 at 6:22 PMMar 8, 2014 at 6:22 PM

Since the building boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, NASCAR’s schedule for its premier series is now defined not by rural rough-and-tumble race tracks drenched in history, but shiny metropolitan-based 1.5-mile intermediate speedways – the inspiration of which was cloned from existing configurations to allow for optimal, and optimistic, seating capacities. The actual racing on these impressive modern facilities was an afterthought, and the result has been less than interesting events during the age of aerodynamics and engineering.

Those of us who have watched enough races pre-building boom appreciate having more than six or seven cars on the leap lap at the end of 400 or 500 miles, but a new generation of fan has taken its gripes about a lack of passing to social media. Since NASCAR’s schedule is entrenched in politics, market analysis and other assorted academic nonsense, the Sprint Cup Series can’t just overhaul its 36-race calendar, so leadership has instead addressed the cars and rolled out larger carrots to chase.

This weekend’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – a first-of-a-kind squat 1.5-mile oval with an arced front “straightaway” that opened in 1996 – is the first real test of NASCAR’s further aerodynamic tinkering on the Gen 6 car in addition to the win-at-all-costs championship structure. The hope is for these two new elements to spawn a riveting white-knuckle thrill ride, the kind that have been lacking on the kind of tracks that make up more than one third of the championship.

At the risk of being cliché by using a gambling term where a race in Las Vegas is concerned, NASCAR has pushed all in on trying to make the cars more raceable in dirty air, at the same time putting a much greater premium on race victories.

Will this work?

Rather than take the series to tracks that are more conducive to close – or at least interesting – races, can NASCAR create a no-holds-barred environment in the current status quo?

In the final laps, will we see the top 5 covered by a blanket in a desperate dash to the finish line, or will one team figure out the setups better than anyone else and prevail?

Sunday’s race, much more than Daytona or Phoenix, will give us a hint whether or not the master plan can work. If the Kobalt 400 isn’t the most important race of the young season, it’s certainly going to set a tone going forward. Success in the form of close racing validates most of NASCAR’s offseason efforts in the minds of the collective fan. Another follow-the-leader affair will light up Twitter, message boards and radio shows with angry zealots decrying the failure of the sport – and possibly the breakdown of society as we’ve known it. Hey, these people take this seriously.

The silent majority accepts what’s become of NASCAR, an enjoyable series in transition, trying to establish itself on the big stage of professional American sports. It’s not the sensational Thrillolympics people at home or in Daytona Beach seem to want it to be, and it never has been. We’ll see if they get closer to their idyllic Nirvana this weekend.

Chris Gill, who covers auto racing for The Leader, can be reached at cmgill@the-leader.com or follow him on Twitter @TheLeaderGill.